Dear Ella,
There was no need to be so apologetic in your letter to us. We understand Dennis needs to study considering the circumstances and we're glad you're staying to keep him company. We'll miss you, of course, but we have the whole summer to catch up.
I'm glad you're making friends and having fun at Hogwarts. I know it's school, but you should still enjoy the time you have there, considering it's your second home now. And don't forget to give Jinxie a pet for me, and say hello to Yeoreum and Torian as well.
Love, Dad.
Ella sighs as she folds the letter in half and slips it back into its envelope. She tucks it beneath her plate so it won't easily fall between the benches.
"What did your parents say?" Yeoreum asks after swallowing a mouthful of bacon.
"My dad says that it's perfectly fine for me to stay. He probably said the same thing to Dennis," Ella says. "He's the only one who signed the letter, so I'm guessing mum isn't happy about it."
She pretends not to notice the worried glances Yeoreum and Torian give each other. It isn't as though she's been keeping the state of her home life a secret, otherwise she wouldn't even be telling them this much, but she hasn't gone into detail. She's sure she's said enough for them to make some educated guesses.
"Are you sure you don't want at least one of us to stay?" Torian asks.
"I'm sure," she says. "I'll have Dennis, and I'm pretty sure I'm not the only first year staying, either. I'll be fine."
"Alright, but I'm still sending you a whole package of chocolate eggs," Yeoreum says. "The good stuff, too. Not the cheap stuff."
Ella grins. "You better."
The Easter break is upon them all too quickly. During the time between her detention and the day everyone begins to leave, she hasn't even come close to finding the Resurrection Stone. They've checked the abandoned bathrooms, old offices, everywhere they can get into without too much fuss (they haven't dared make another trip like the one to the boathouse), but there isn't any indication that a powerful magical object has been anywhere at all.
"I'll do some research in the manor library while I'm at home," Torian promises as he and Yeoreum wheel their trunks towards the entrance hall. "I don't know how much of my family will be there for the holidays, though, so my time could be limited."
"Don't worry too much about it. Spend time with your family," Ella says.
"If you need us, just owl!" Yeoreum says. "We'll be here right away!"
Torian raises an eyebrow. "How? We can't apparate and the Hogwarts Express won't be returning until the last day of break."
Yeoreum purses her lips and Ella can almost hear the gears turning in her head. "Well, I'm sure my dad would be more than happy to apparate me in the case of an emergency!"
"That makes one of us."
Ella sees the two of them off at the castle's main entrance, waving to Yeoreum, who walks backwards until she almost topples over her trunk. Torian forces her to turn back around and Ella watches them until they're out of sight. It won't be for very long and they'll exchange letters, but she'll miss them regardless.
(What happened to refusing to make friends?)
She doesn't have time to dwell on their parting when someone arrives next to her and says, "Welcome to the First Year Hogwarts Holidays Club."
Gabriel King looks much like his sister Evangeline with the same blonde hair and round face. It's his body language that makes him different, his stance more relaxed, though that could simply be the lack of worries as a first year showing through. Ella wouldn't know, not having had a real conversation with him before despite their siblings being best friends.
"There's a club now?" Ella says.
"According to Ilaria, there always has been. She's just not the only member anymore."
"Ilaria stays at Hogwarts for the holidays?"
"I guess so. She hasn't been home since the summer, apparently." Gabriel starts retracing his steps back through the entrance hall and Ella easily keeps pace beside him. "It's hard to tell with her, but I think she's happy there are other first years here."
Ella hums in lieu of a proper reply. She doesn't have an opinion. How can she when she hasn't even spoken to the girl? Even she and Gabriel rarely speak despite their siblings being friends.
It's only as they turn their fifth corner that Ella thinks to ask, "Where are we going, exactly?"
"Where all Hufflepuffs go to hang out," Gabriel says with a wry smile. "The kitchens."
As they leave the ground floor and go below, Ella can't help but wonder if there are any nooks and crannies that could easily hide a stone. It's unlikely that the Resurrection Stone would be left this close to a common room, but stranger things have happened, and she isn't about to rule any option out. She can't afford to.
Yet every corridor is spick and span, not a single pebble or rock to be found. It was worth a shot.
Gabriel stops in front of a large painting of a bowl of fruit. Ella is about to ask why they've stopped when he reaches out and wiggles his fingers — no, tickles the painting's pair. The giggle it gives makes her jump, but Gabriel is unperturbed, grabbing the green door handle the pear turns into and pulling the door open.
"After you," he says.
The first thing she notices about the kitchen is that it's warm. A large fireplace burns on one side of the room, five long tables identical to those in the Great Hall taking up most of the space. Sitting at one of them is Ilaria Rosier, munching on some treacle tart from who-knows-where and swinging her legs back and forth.
She doesn't notice them come in, facing away from them with her long brown hair shielding her face. It's only when Gabriel taps on the tabletop in front of her that she turns to them.
"Oh, Gabriel, hello." Her gaze slides over to Ella. "Hello, Ella. Care to join me? There's plenty of treacle tart to go around."
"Thanks," Ella says, straining to keep the awkwardness from her voice. She slides into the seat across from her, Gabriel following suit.
Ilaria watches as she takes a treacle tart and bites into it. Her gaze is unnerving, eyes slightly wide and focused, staring into Ella's soul. She's glad she sits behind her in most classes; she doesn't think she would be able to concentrate knowing those eyes were able to see her for an entire hour.
"I hope you like staying here over break. It's quite nice having the castle so quiet. It's peaceful," Ilaria finally says. "That should be good for your siblings — they're the reason you're staying behind, right? Since they're studying?"
"Yeah, we figured we'd keep them company. I know I'd feel bad if I went home without Eva," Gabriel says.
Ella nods in agreement and takes the opportunity to ask the question that's been eating away at her since Gabriel found her. "Why did you stay behind, Ilaria?"
"My family hates me." It's said so nonchalantly one would think they were talking about homework or the weather, and Ella is immediately caught off-guard. She and Gabriel, despite rarely talking until ten minutes prior, share a mutual look of confusion and concern.
Ella is ready to leave the topic there, not wanting to pry, but Gabriel clearly has other plans. "Why do you think that?"
"Oh, I don't think, I know," Ilaria says, brushing some crumbs from her mouth. "It's because I don't see eye-to-eye with them on most things — I'm not at all interested in blood purity — and I have different hobbies. I like a lot of muggle things." She perks up, as if remembering something. "And there's of course how I called the Aurors on father for being a Death Eater."
Ella's mouth drops open and Gabriel chokes on his tart.
"How did you manage that?" he asks once he's recovered.
Ilaria tilts her head as if he's asked a strange question. "I wrote to them. He escaped the final battle and went into hiding, so I wrote to them and told them where he was. Mother wasn't too happy. Seraphina tore up all my favourite shirts after that."
"Seraphina?"
"My older sister. A fifth year."
The name rings a bell in Ella's mind, though not for anything good. She remembers Dennis mentioning her a few times, talking about her spoiled temperament and rotten attitude, how she would play cruel pranks on everyone, but especially the muggleborns in their year. How someone like that could be related to someone like Ilaria is a mystery to her.
"That sounds… rough," Gabriel eventually says.
Ilaria hums, a pleasant sound, and allows her gaze to drift elsewhere. Her eyes become glazed over and Ella is reminded of their time in class together. This is the look she usually wears in their lessons and they and their classmates have learned by now that she's gone with the fairies and not much will be able to bring her back down.
"That's the most I've ever heard her speak this year," Gabriel says, voice low, though Ella doubts that Ilaria is paying enough attention to hear him. "And she comes out with that. She's a strange one."
Ella nods in agreement.
Ella finds that searching for the stone by herself is not nearly as fun as searching with Yeoreum and Torian. She raked through the entire greenhouse, taking care not to uproot any of the plants, as tempting as it is to dig through the dirt for a suspiciously large rock. She's also checked all of the bathrooms (aside from the unused girl's lavatory, she's heard of Moaning Myrtle and she isn't all that eager to meet her) she has access to despite having gone over them before.
All of it leads to nothing.
On the third day of break, a letter from Torian arrives alongside a round tin with ribbon tied on it. A slip of paper is attached to it with her name on it. When she uses her wand to neatly cut the ribbon and opens the tin, she's hit with the smell of chocolate. Brownies.
Not wanting to get crumbs all over her bed, she takes her tasty treat outside and begins absent-mindedly wandering and chewing as she reads the letter.
Dear Ella,
I hope your break has been going well, and I hope your search has been going even better. I've been in the library as much as possible during the break, which isn't as much as I'd like, but I've managed to uncover a few things. Surprisingly, not all of it has been from written text.
I talked to my grandmother (don't worry, I didn't mention what we were looking for, I just said a friend was looking for something they'd lost in the castle but was having trouble finding it again) since she was interested in what I was doing. She told me that she once found a room that was just full of different objects of all shapes and sizes, and in there she found everything she'd ever lost at Hogwarts over the years. Perhaps it could be in there? The only problem is that she doesn't know how she got there, since after she left she could never find the room again.
The other bit of information comes from an old book about Hogwarts. I haven't been able to read through all of it since my cousin Estella stole it to read (she's coming to Hogwarts next year and says she wants to know what she's getting into, as if she can't just ask), but from what I did find, it says that Hogwarts is the home of a lot of ancient magic since it's been around since 990 AD. The castle has a lot of secrets, I'm sure, and while it's not super helpful right now, I think it's something we should keep in mind.
I'll keep looking at let you know what I find.
From, Torian.
P.S. Mum was really excited about the brownies and wants to know what you think, so make sure to write back soon!
It's with a smile on her face that she folds up the letter and slides it into her jacket pocket. Out of the two discoveries Torian made, the Room of Hidden Things is likely their best bet, if only it wasn't, well, hidden. She isn't ready to give up yet, though. There must be a way to find it somewhere. Someone must know something.
Magic must be on her side today, as a potential answer arrives in the form of a familiar face sitting outside on the hill leading towards the Forbidden Forest, their head in a book. Ella smirks.
"Hey, Malfoy!"
Draco's startled expression makes her laugh, even as he schools it into something more neutral and says, "Creevey, I didn't know you'd stayed for the holidays."
"It's Ella, and likewise." If Draco has been around for the break so far, he must be avoiding everyone. She hasn't seen him at meal times, nor wandering the halls, and she wonders where he goes off to throughout the day. "What are you still hiding out at Hogwarts for."
Draco takes a deep breath, a frown on his face, and she wonders if he's about to spout something vitriolic like most would expect from him. Instead, he breathes out and says, "I'm not going back to the manor. Mother is in France."
Ella stares, trying to connect the dots, but comes up with nothing. "Okay? Can't you go visit her in France?"
Draco gives her an odd look. "Haven't you been reading the Daily Prophet?"
"Not particularly." She hears enough of it in the mornings from Damien ranting about it like an old man. "Why?"
"Any person with the… mark," he swallows thickly, "who wasn't sentenced to Azkaban — mostly those who were underaged when they were branded — aren't legally allowed to leave the country for five years."
"Oh." Perhaps she should read the Daily Prophet more often. "And your mother went to France knowing that?"
Draco's grip on his book tightens. "It's what's best for her. Over here she only has the manor, and neither of us want to be there right now."
His tone makes Ella wonder if she's stepped over some invisible line, so she doesn't ask anymore questions. Instead, she places her tin between them and lifts the lid. "Brownie?"
"Are you giving me a pity brownie?"
"You don't deserve my pity, Malfoy."
"Fair." He takes a brownie. "So, what's your excuse for staying at Hogwarts?"
She picks up a brownie of her own. "Dennis is staying here to properly study for his OWLs since it's easier to do it here than at home. I didn't want to go home and have Easter without him, so I decided to stick around for moral support."
She doesn't mention that any celebration in the Creevey family home would be a melancholic affair with all of them tip-toeing around the elephant in the room. Or rather, the elephant that would never be in the room again. Malfoy has no business knowing it.
"I see. Well, good luck to him, then." He says it stiffly. She doesn't know if it's because he's simply not used to being nice or because Dennis is a muggleborn.
"He'll be fine. He's been studying nonstop, he can probably recite everything in his sleep," she says.
"Yes." Draco gives a long sigh. "OWLs often feel like that."
Silence settles between them. They munch on their brownies and watch the world around them. It's a cloudy day, but Ella doubts it will rain despite the increasing winds. Birds are flying from tree to tree and, if she leans forward and squints, she can see Hagrid moving around in front of his hut. It's quite peaceful.
Out of the corner of her eye, she watches Draco. He's returned to his book, carefully holding his brownie away from its pages and eating it slower than she would expect a grown man to. She thinks of the day in the library when he and his friends helped her and Yeoreum figure out where to search. His knowledge of Hogwarts is understandable considering his seven, almost eight year tenure as a student. If he knows that much, then maybe there are other things he is privy to.
"Hey, can I ask a question?"
Draco puts his book down again. "You're about to ask it anyway. Go on."
"Do you know about something called the Room of Hidden Things?"
A look of alarm crosses Draco's face and he abruptly shuts his book before he manages to give a poor display of trying to remain nonchalant. "Where did you hear about that?"
"My friend Torian heard it from his grandmother," Ella says. "So you know about it?"
Draco is looking in her direction, but he isn't quite looking at her. "Yeah. Yeah, I know about it. I don't recommend going in there."
"You've been in there?"
"Are you even listening to me?"
"Fine, fine, why shouldn't I go in there?"
"Well, first of all, I don't know if the place has been completely destroyed or not."
Ella frowns. "Destroyed? Why would it have been destroyed?"
Draco turns his book over in his lap. "During the Battle of Hogwarts there was a stand-off in that very room. It ended in someone casting Fiendfyre."
"Fiendfyre? What's that?"
"It's a dark fire spell. It releases an almost uncontrollable flame that just spreads and spreads. There's a counter curse, but in this case, the caster had never learned it and he… he paid for it with his life." Draco stares at something beyond her. "I — the other people in the room managed to make it out, but barely."
'I.' So he was there.
"Well, I'm glad the others made it out, then," she says, hoping he gets the message.
"I wonder if they see it that way." It's said so quietly that Ella doesn't think she was supposed to hear it, so she doesn't comment on it, as much as she desperately wants to.
"But wouldn't the fire have been put out by now? I mean, I think the people here would have noticed if the place was on fire," she says instead.
"It's a bit more complicated than that," Draco says. "The Room of Hidden things was also hidden itself. It's like there's a… magical seal that prevents anything in that room from getting out other than the people going in and out. Once people are no longer inside it, it's as if it doesn't exist. My best assumption is that no one has found it since and so its fate is unknown."
Ella is surprised that no one has gone searching for it again. For a hidden room, it doesn't appear to be much of a secret. "But there is a way to find it, right?"
"Don't, Creevey," Draco says, taking on a snappish tone that fits better with the image Colin and Dennis always gave her of him. "You don't know what you're getting into."
She huffs. "Isn't it better to figure out if the room is still on fire or not?"
"Perhaps. But a first year has no business doing so," he says, voice snottier than she's ever heard it.
"And I'm sure you kept yourself completely out of trouble in your first year," she says.
"Yes, well. I know from experience." Draco pops the last bit of his brownie into his mouth and stands, dusting his trousers off. "Thanks for the brownie, Creevey. Don't do anything rash."
"I won't," she calls to him as he leaves, fingers crossed behind her back.
ella and draco are quickly becoming one of my favourite dynamics to write this wasn't intentional but it's way too fun.